To what extent are structural assumptions veiled in extant outsourcing research? In this paper we suggest a unified view on social ties between individuals in outsourcing relationships. In a comprehensive literature analysis of outsourcing research since 2001, we identified structural assumptions and categorize them based on social network measures. Our analysis uncovers two salient patterns: 1...

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is an inter-conversion between posters and lurkers, and to further measure the effects of shyness, sociability, and the community-related attributes on the social network sites (SNS) participation status (posting or lurking). Quantitative survey was conducted among 412 Hong Kong college students. Shyness and sociability were respectively mea...

As users increasingly participate in the community, social networking sites (SNS) are gaining attention in academic research. This study aims to explore perceived value influencing usage intention in SNS, and examines the mediation of customer satisfaction between perceived value and usage intention. Mediated regression analysis was used and 205 savvy SNS users in Taiwan were investigated. The ...

Many foreign companies see social media as a low cost marketing space for entering the vast Chinese market. This is fraught with complexity, requiring an understanding of social media behaviour, social media marketing, and the Chinese context. In this exploratory pilot study, we develop the notion of ‘franding’ (online friending of brands) as a unifying metaphor, and suggest that effective soci...

Social media usage among organizations is growing tremendously. Organizations are now building and maintaining social media public pages to improve their social network salience, enhance interest in their organizations, and build relationships with the online public. The majority of the studies on social media usage are based on the individual perspective while some are from the organizational ...

As the popularity and the commercial potential of social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook increase, we present a framework that aims to reuse social networks data within a customer relationship management (CRM) application. The framework has been implemented in LinkedInFinder that pulls data from LinkedIn into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system. Our proof-of-concept implementation demonstr...

This paper critically reflects predictions that social and mobile media will revolutionize internal and external corporate processes and collaboration approaches by analyzing the current usage of social software and mobile media in various firm’s operational fields in German-speaking countries. It further aims at identifying some of factors that influence the implementation and application of s...

In this short note, by using some of Chen’s theorems and classic analysis, we obtain a double inequality for triangle and give a positive answer to a problem posed by Yang and Yin [6].

This paper examines the efficacy of social media systems in customer complaint handling. The emergence of social media, as a useful complement and (possibly) a viable alternative to the traditional channels of service delivery, motivates this research. The theoretical framework, developed from literature on social media and complaint handling, is tested against data collected from two different...